Devices for and methods of electrically heating an object such as a food product by placing the object between opposing electrodes have hitherto been known, and various forms of electrodes used therefore are known.
For even and efficient heating, in devices that achieve heating by direct application of electrical energy, the electrodes need to make sufficient contact with the object being heated, and in devices that achieve induction heating by application of a high frequency electric field, gaps between the object and the electrodes need to be kept small and even.
In order to deal with irregularly shaped objects, there has been proposed a device in which at least one of the electrodes has an electrode plate with a plurality of through holes and a plurality of conductive pins axially slidably supported in the through holes (see, for example, Patent Documents 1 and 2).
With the use of an electrode having conductive pins that are axially slidably supported, even an irregularly shaped object can be evenly heated in a short time without local concentration of heat, as the conductive pins follow the irregular contour of the object and the tips of the plurality of conductive pins evenly make contact with the surface of the object.